Pass the NCE — or get every dollar back. Guaranteed.

The full Fast Track Study System — every practice question, every flashcard deck, full-length mock exams, narrated audio, Miles the AI tutor, and the entire study guide, every chapter readable and highlightable. The cheat sheet — the highest-yield facts as a PDF — is in the study portal on every pass, with instant access to download it. Every pass opens all of it; Standard carries the Money-Back Guarantee and SurePass the SurePass Guarantee.

Standard and SurePass carry it. Score 80%+ on one full-length mock, sit the real exam, and if you don't pass we refund what you paid. On SurePass, clear two mocks with your readiness meter at "Getting close" or above and we also pay your full $150 retake fee. A refund also comes with free access to keep preparing — 90 more days on Standard, another year on SurePass. Starter carries no refund — don't pass, upload your score report, and we add 30 more days of access, free. Every free period is counted from the earliest date your exam allows a retake. You file the claim in your study portal with your official score report.

The one in force now — the 200-question, four-option form built on NBCC's six weighted domains — and NBCC itself says who that is for: "If you plan to take the NCE prior to summer 2027, please refer to the current content outline." From 1 July 2027 NBCC replaces the exam rather than adjusting it. The new form is 170 questions with three answer options instead of four, organized into six new behavioral domains from its 2024-25 work analysis, and scored 100 to 500 with a fixed passing point of 360 in place of a raw score out of 160. So if you are sitting before summer 2027, this is built for your exam item by item, and that is the great majority of people reading this. If you are sitting the new version, that is a different test and we are not going to tell you this is written to it. Nothing on this page promises otherwise, and we would rather say so now than have you find out in July.

Four scored full-length sittings, each a brand-new 200-question paper weighted across all six domains and timed to the real 3 hours 45 minutes. Practice questions and timed practice are unlimited and never use one. They draw from 1,000 curated items, five full papers' worth, so even after four scored sittings two hundred of them are still ones you have not met. NBCC's own study aid is a printed booklet of 180 practice questions.

SurePass, for almost everyone: today it costs the same as Standard, it runs a full year, and it is the only pass that pays your retake fee if you don't pass (and adds another year free). Standard is a month of access with the Money-Back Guarantee — a refund plus 90 more days if you don't pass. Starter is one week of access with no refund — don't pass and you get 30 more days free.

$150. That number comes from the one NBCC document written only for candidates who did not pass, and it is unambiguous — under its own heading "Cost?" it reads "There is a $150 reregistration fee." Two honest notes. NBCC and CCE publish no figure at all for the state-licensure route; it appears inside your Credentialing Gateway account after you log in. So SurePass covers your full $150 retake fee and we pay what your receipt actually says up to that ceiling — if your board charges more, the $150 is what comes back. The second note is that the calendar costs more than the money: a retake waits at least 30 days, you may only test once per authorized window, and on the certification route the application closes after a third failed attempt, so a fourth try means a whole new application. Fees are, in NBCC's words, "not refundable nor transferable."

200 multiple-choice questions in 3 hours 45 minutes, inside a 4 hour 15 minute session that also holds the agreement, a tutorial and one scheduled 15-minute break after question 100. Of the 200, 160 are scored and 40 are unmarked field-test items jumbled in among them, so you cannot tell which ones count. Six domains carry the weighting: Counseling Skills and Interventions 30%, Areas of Clinical Focus 29%, Professional Practice and Ethics 12%, Intake, Assessment, and Diagnosis 12%, Treatment Planning 9%, and Core Counseling Attributes 8%. NBCC also aligns the content to the eight CACREP curriculum areas, but only the six domains carry item counts — which is why our bank, our guide and our mocks are built on the six.

There is no fixed number, and NBCC explains why rather than leaving you guessing. The passing point is set by a modified Angoff study, then equated for each version of the test: "Passing scores may vary slightly for each version of the examination. To ensure fairness to all candidates, a process of statistical equating is used to determine the cut score for each version." You receive a raw score out of the 160 scored items, and the cut you are measured against is the one for your form. So anybody quoting you a percentage is inventing it. The 80% our mocks score against is OUR bar, stated as ours, and it is deliberately set where a sitting that clears it means something.

It is worth having and it is not a study system, which is a fair thing to say out loud. The NBCC Foundation sells a printed guide at $34.95 with 180 practice questions and full explanations, covering all six domains, through CCE Academy's store — nonrefundable, in their terms. It comes from the people who write the exam, and ours cannot claim that. It is also 180 questions in a coil-bound booklet with no scheduling, no readiness measure and no mocks on the real clock. A candidate who buys both is better prepared than one who buys either.

Your account stays; the paid features stop. Your notes, highlights and flashcard history are all still there if you come back, and SurePass runs a full year — and adds another year free if you don't pass.

Every item is written to NBCC's published content outline, weighted across the six domains in NBCC's own shares, with four options and a rationale on each, and every one of the 173 published work behaviors carries at least one question. We also run a construction audit nobody else in this category runs: a reader who cannot see the question, only the options, is measured against pure guessing, and we publish what it scores rather than claiming a result. On this bank that reader gets 30.1% where a coin-flip gives 25% — and the same reader scored 34.3% on a bank we already sell, so this one gives away less than a paper we ship today. That is why it carries our standard 80% bar rather than a stricter one. What we will not suggest is that these questions appear on the real exam. They do not, and NBCC prohibits reconstructing its items in as many words.

Yes. Change the date and the Game Plan rebuilds around the new one — it works backwards from your date, so a move forward compresses it and a move back spreads it out. Nothing is lost.

Yes to both. Add it to your home screen and it behaves like an app. Your due flashcards and a set of practice questions download automatically, so you can revise with no signal. The whole study guide downloads too, narrated audio included; scored mocks and the tutor still need a connection.

Yes, separately from the pass guarantee: 24 hours on Starter, 48 hours on Standard, or 72 hours on SurePass, measured from your purchase (or from your upgrade, if you upgraded) — no questions asked, as long as you haven't sat your exam yet. EEA and UK buyers also keep their 14-day statutory right. The SurePass Guarantee is the other promise — that one is about your exam result, not about changing your mind.

Because we honor them. Every guarantee is a real financial commitment we may genuinely pay out, so a limited number opens for this exam each day. The allocation resets at midnight in your own time zone, and the counter shows how many of today's are still open.